Exploiting the power of information in medical education

William B Cutrer,W Anderson Spickard,Marc M Triola,Bradley L Allen,Nathan Spell,Steven K Herrine,John L Dalrymple,Paul N Gorman,Kimberly D Lomis

doi:10.1080/0142159x.2021.1925234

Abstract

The explosion of medical information demands a thorough reconsideration of medical education, including what we teach and assess, how we educate, and whom we educate. Physicians of the future will need to be self-aware, self-directed, resource-effective team players who can synthesize and apply summarized information and communicate clearly. Training in metacognition, data science, informatics, and artificial intelligence is needed. Education programs must shift focus from content delivery to providing students explicit scaffolding for future learning, such as the Master Adaptive Learner model. Additionally, educators should leverage informatics to improve the process of education and foster individualized, precision education. Finally, attributes of the successful physician of the future should inform adjustments in recruitment and admissions processes. This paper explores how member schools of the American Medical Association Accelerating Change in Medical Education Consortium adjusted all aspects of educational programming in acknowledgment of the rapid expansion of information.

Highlights

The explosion of medical knowledge demands a thorough reconsideration of medical education, including what we teach and assess, how we educate, and whom we educate
The rapid expansion of health information impacts all stakeholders in the health care system
The Master Adaptive Learner process is situated within critical background influence of the health care learning environment; consortium members found that organizational culture and the hidden curriculum must be addressed to create an environment conducive to adaptive learners

Summary

Introduction

The explosion of medical knowledge demands a thorough reconsideration of medical education, including what we teach and assess, how we educate, and whom we educate. The Master Adaptive Learner process is situated within critical background influence of the health care learning environment; consortium members found that organizational culture and the hidden curriculum must be addressed to create an environment conducive to adaptive learners To bring this model to life requires changing educational structures to provide opportunities for self-regulated learning and co-production of new knowledge. At Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine (OHSU), students begin the curriculum with a pre-matriculation self-assessment and advance through individualized learning plans as they achieve key milestones across all competency domains These milestones are tracked by a web-based personal portfolio, REDEI, and students receive badges for their achievements. New York University (NYU) School of Medicine leverages information to critically appraise long-term programmatic outcomes with its Tracer project, which uses publicly available practice data to better understand the influences of education programs on health care quality outcome measures (Triola et al 2018). Techniques to assess an applicant’s tolerance for ambiguity, skills in information appraisal over memorization, systems thinking, openness to feedback, willingness to participate in continual improvement, value for the input of teammates, and resilience in learning become critical to identify and foster physicians poised to fully exploit information throughout their careers to optimize the care of patients and populations

Conclusion

Notes on contributors